Clone ranger sniffs out airport drugs

Aug 12, 2009

South Korean customs officials handle cloned sniffer dogs checking baggage at Incheon International Airport in July. A cloned sniffer dog has proved itself smarter than the average pup by detecting drugs at South Korea's main airport just weeks after starting service, officials said Wednesday.

A cloned sniffer dog has proved itself smarter than the average pup by detecting drugs at South Korea's main airport just weeks after starting service, officials said Wednesday.

The dog, named Tosun, detected three grams (0.1 of an ounce) of narcotics in an envelope stored in a tightly zipped bag at Incheon International Airport, the Korea Customs Service said in a statement.

It was the first such achievement by a cloned animal on government service.

"It is a great achievement," Kim Dae-Keun, a customs official working in the narcotics-related department, told Yonhap news agency.

"Compared with ordinary sniffers, which have to undergo a longer period of getting accustomed to working conditions, Tosun made a marked score less than a month after being deployed."

Tosun is one of seven dogs cloned in late 2007 by scientists at Seoul National University from a renowned Canadian-born sniffer dog.

One pup dropped out because of an injury. After training, the remaining six were deployed at Incheon airport and other regional customs offices in July to help crack down on narcotics trafficking.

They were claimed to be the world's first cloned drug-sniffers.

There are 15 sniffer dogs at Incheon, of which three are clones.

The customs statement said Tosun's achievement shows cloned dogs are much better than ordinary dogs at detecting narcotics, and it plans to deploy more.

(AP) -- South Korean scientists say they have engineered four beagles that glow red using cloning techniques that could help develop cures for human diseases. The four dogs, all named "Ruppy" - a combination ...

Washington state researchers report discovering what might be the sound of dog laughter. The scientists say the long, loud pant they recorded has a calming or soothing effect on the behavior of other dogs, ABC News reported.

Recommended for you

UCLA life scientists have created an accurate new method to identify genetic markers for many diseases—a significant step toward a new era of personalized medicine, tailored to each person's DNA and RNA.

Similar to humans and animals, plants possess an innate immune system that protects them from invading pathogens. Molecular structures that only occur in pathogens enable their recognition and trigger the ...

A new study into the generalist parasite Albugo candida (A. candida), cause of white rust of brassicas, has revealed key insights into the evolution of plant diseases to aid agriculture and global food security.

User comments : 0

Please sign in to add a comment.
Registration is free, and takes less than a minute.
Read more

Click here to reset your password.
Sign in to get notified via email when new comments are made.

Javascript is currently disabled in your web browser. For full site functionality, it is necessary to enable Javascript.
In order to enable it, please see these instructions.